6 killed in Peshawar police station blast

A Taliban suicide bomber killed six people, ramming an explosives-laden truck into a three-storey police station in Peshawar, report agencies quoting officials.

Pakistan's Taliban has admitted their responsibility for the attack, which is in retaliation to the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by US commandos north of Islamabad on early May.

It was a huge blast which completely destroyed the three-storey building, Senior police official Muhammad Ijaz said, noting that there were usually 10 to 15 people present at that time in the police station.

Five policemen and a soldier were killed in the blast. Police said the truck that smashed the building contained at least 200 to 250 kilograms of explosives, and that body parts were hurled more than 300 meters away from the blast.

Reports said, there were 23 people injured along with nine policemen and a child in the dawn explosion in Peshawar, the gateway to Pakistan's militant-infested tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan.

The razed building housed the police criminal investigation department and was located in the Peshawar Cantonment area just 150 meters from the US consulate.

We will further step up these attacks to avenge Osama bin Laden's martyrdom, Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

These attacks will continue until the US drone strikes and ongoing Pakistani military operations are stopped in the tribal regions, he told the news agency.